


The Beach

by skeletonavenue



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Angst, Beach Trip, F/F, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-18
Updated: 2012-07-18
Packaged: 2017-11-10 06:13:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/463108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skeletonavenue/pseuds/skeletonavenue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The S.E.E.S. group take a vacation to the beach, and Yukari Takeba thinks long and hard about how her feelings for Mitsuru are changing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beach

“Wow, Mitsuru-senpai, your skin is flawless!”

It’s not before the words have left your lips you realize how subconsciously you’re saying them.

You feel a blush rising to your cheeks, especially with the boys and Fuuka right next to you, but oddly, you don’t seem to care much. It’s almost as if seeing that blush on Mitsuru’s face is enough to wipe out any form of embarrassment, as she clears her throat and looks coyly away from you.

“Takeba…”

“Have you put on sun lotion yet, senpai?” Fuuka interjects, and you’re quite grateful for no lingering silences.

“Yeah, let me hel- ow!” Junpei whines, as you feel your hand not so subconsciously smack him around the ear. Mitsuru laughs a little, a smile that you haven’t seen her crack since coming here and since the drama surrounding Tartarus, and you think how refreshing it is to actually see her _happy_.

“No, I haven’t yet.”

“Wow…” Fuuka gushes with awe, and you stand with a slight smile on your face, as you realize that Mitsuru continues to steal a few glances your way for the next ten minutes.

You don’t dare to question why Mitsuru looking at you satisfies you, if only because things have been awkward between the two of you lately.

Some of Mitsuru’s mannerisms continue to irritate you, if only just because she’s _too_ perfect to be true; heiress of a rich, successful family, the most popular girl at school, and certainly the most beautiful. Her firm work ethics still stand, almost prioritizing education above fighting shadows, and her belief to help out those in need too. Everything about her is perfection and it annoys you – it always has - but you can’t quite help loving her in secret.

Part of you thinks that maybe she’s began to clock onto this as well, because her behaviour since the revelations about your father came out has changed. She’s less stern, less contained around you, more able to see how you act around her now that the fear is gone. The blush just minutes ago proved that, and another part of you wonders if maybe she feels this slight nagging crush too.

Admitting that you had a crush on Mitsuru Kirijo was maybe one of the hardest things to have been able to do to yourself, but you think of the way she looks at you, and you know that you’re completely right in feeling such things.

The weather is perfect on the beach. You hear Junpei and Fuuka splashing around now, with Minato and Akihiko having a discussion just short of you on the sand. Mitsuru is sat, perfectly composed underneath a parasol, and you bite your lip as you walk over to join her.

“So…is this seat taken?” You say, peering down as cutely as possible, hands locked behind your back, and she looks up a little in surprise.

“Oh?” Mitsuru attempts to reply casually, and fails. “Um, no. Feel free.”

You sit down and try desperately not to stare at the line of her collarbone, and feel a slight blush on your cheeks.

Mitsuru smirks a little.

“Do you have sunburn already?”

“Hm?!” you reply, an octave higher than usual, and fold your arms. “No! I’m fine, I think. Why?”

“Well, your face. It’s all flushed.”

“Is it?” you reply, unconvincingly calm, as Mitsuru continues to smirk.

“Hang on, I can help you out.”

She pulls a bag up from underneath the rainbow coloured recliner, rummaged around a little, before pulling out a small blue bottle.

“Come here.”

You blink for a second, and eventually you sheepishly shuffle over onto the end of her recliner. She sits up, and puts a line of the lotion on her finger, before she holds it just close to your cheek.

“You don’t mind me doing this, right?”

You’re blushing so hard you feel dizzy.

“No, it’s fine!” you manage to stammer out, and _god_ you realize how much you want Mitsuru Kirijo all to yourself as she smiles.

It’s a moment that neither one of you quite forgets, especially as Mitsuru is looking at you in such a way that you just can’t read what she’s thinking. Her strokes along your face become more intimate, more comforting, a _lot_ more than just applying suncream, almost as though she’s burning a message into your skin, and the heat rising up from the beach becomes miniscule by comparison of the emotions soaring through your body.

It’s not until this moment that you realize that you, Yukari Takeba, are in love with Mitsuru Kirijo.  
  
Just like everybody else.

 

At this point, your faces are just centimetres apart, and both of you are staring at each other’s lips.

Your head still feels dizzy, but your hands begin to tingle from wanting to grab her and kiss her with all of your might, and it seems like she may want to do the same from the way her free hand is just about to touch your wrist, and then -

“Hey! Whatcha doin’?”

You spring up away from Mitsuru in an instant, as though you’ve been doing something sordid with her rather than just having your face stroked by her, and she grumbles as well, glaring daggers at Junpei for ruining the moment.

You smirk to yourself as Junpei feels threatened.

“Woah, what did I ruin?” he says hesitantly, holding up his hands. “I didn’t know you guys were into something serious!”

Mitsuru shakes her head, and Junpei rubs the back of his neck.

“I just wondered if you guys wanted to come play in the ocean with us! It’s great!”

You and Mitsuru exchange looks, and just before you’re about to decline the offer, she says,

“Sure.”

and you feel your heart sink a little.

“Alriiiight!” Junpei says, clapping his hands together, and you watch as his eyes wander.

 

You realize you’d tear them out of his head if you could.

 

“What about you, Yuka-tan?” he gloats, turning his attention to you. “Too much of a challenge for ya?”

You scowl at him, and fold your arms.

“I’m not in the mood to play _games_.”

Junpei makes a disapproving sound and Mitsuru looks a little surprised. The blush fades from your cheeks.

“Man, you’re such a party pooper, Yuka-tan!” he continues to whine. “C’mon, senpai, let’s go.”

He wandered off along the beach again, humming a tune to himself, as Mitsuru looks at you with another type of glance you can’t quite work out.

“Are you sure you don’t want to join in?” she asks firmly, in a ‘come and join in’ sort of way, but you’re feeling particularly stubborn now.

“I’m fine, you have fun. Thanks for the lotion, though.”

She remains silent as you look at one another, before she sighs a little.

“Maybe when it’s less busy…would you like to have a chat?”

You feel the blush coming back.

“A chat…?”

“Yes. I’ll meet you here again at eight. Don’t be late.”

You blink, as you realize that Mitsuru Kirijo effectively just ordered you on a date.

 

 

It’s eight in the evening and you trudge onto the beach once more.

The sunset is beautiful. A dull orange glow rippling through the clouds, and you see that same large parasol from earlier with the same two recliners, and the same, beautiful girl stood at what looks like a cooling box, picking up a can from the ice and not catching a glimpse of you just yet.

You take the opportunity to look at her with your fingers dancing over your lips in contemplation, frowning at the rising desire you’re feeling that terrifies you, before she doesn’t give your brain much more of a chance to continue that trail of thought, as she smiles at you suddenly.

“Thank you for coming, Takeba.” she says in that steely voice of hers, almost as though you’re a stranger, and that sets you on edge.

“What did you ask me here for?”

Mitsuru blinks a little, almost as though she’s offended that you would question her offer, and takes another sip of her drink.

“I thought it would be nice to spend some time together away from the group, I suppose. Given we’ve been through…quite  a lot, this past week.”

You can’t help but agree, romantic motives aside.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Would you like to sit by the ocean?” she asks, and you kind of get the impression that there’s a sheepish grin behind that line. You smirk to yourself, and nod politely.

“Sure.”

You half expect her to offer her hand to walk you there, because the atmosphere is so romantic, but she keeps them firmly to her sides. The wind brushes her red hair away from her eyes fully for a few moments, and you restrain a comical noise of desire as you forcibly look away.

She sits down on the towel she brought underneath her arm, placing it just enough so that you have a free space too, and you both sit down just short of the ocean lapping at your feet.

There is a brief silence for a moment, before both of you decide to talk at the same time.

“Takeba -”

“Mitsuru, I -”

Both of you stop, and look away with a little embarrassment. Mitsuru runs a hand through her hair, before looking down solemnly at the sand.

“I…never got the chance to apologize to you, for keeping things from you all these years.”

You feel an unexpected sting to your eyes as you look at her, a little shocked, and wait for her to continue.

“I never wanted to keep anything from you.” She says in such a low voice it’s almost a murmur, “Not from you. Especially not you…but how was I supposed to tell you something of that magnitude? And especially as you never cared enough to ask before, I never felt it was really all that relevant. But I shouldn’t have run away from the truth. I’m so sorry.”

“Mitsuru…” you say, as she looks at you with such a heartbroken expression it almost cuts you like a knife.

“Will you ever forgive me?” Mitsuru asks after a brief pause, with a cracked, solemn voice. You blink a few tears from your eyes.

“I…”

The next move is somewhat instinctive.

You feel your hands cup her face, so forwardly, and the first thing you think is how her skin really _is_ as smooth as it looks, and then you feel yourself lean forward quickly to kiss her on the lips.

The kiss is admittedly rushed, hard, and a little sloppy, but Mitsuru doesn’t seem to mind that you managed to kiss her bottom lip and the upper part of her chin, because she’s kissing back.

You both break away and you scope the area hastily while your brain frazzles out inside your skull, and Mitsuru looks at you in a warm stupor.

“Yukari…”

Your ears prick up, even in the midst of your embarrassment, and you look at her almost as though through a new pair of eyes.

“You said my name for the first time,” you say aloud, and she looks a little startled. “You usually call me Takeba.”

She blushes a little harder than you did from the kiss alone, and rubs the back of her neck.

“I guess this is a night full of first experiences for both of us, then.”

You smile a little, and she looks at you, almost coyly.

“I…wouldn’t mind doing that again.”

You know what she means, but for some reason you ignore the pressing butterflies in your stomach, and smirk a little with flirty confidence.

“Saying my name?”

Mitsuru pouts, indignantly, before smiling at the joke.

“No. I think you know what I mean, _Takeba_.”

She says the last word so pointedly that you can’t help but giggle the embarrassment away, before you peer one last time over your shoulder, and look at her.

“That sounds good to me,” you say, and before you can finish the last word, her lips are pressed more accurately against yours and your head feels dizzy with the euphoria.

You feel fluid with your actions, you feel as though you have been waiting your whole life for this moment.

Your hands move to crawl up into her hair, as her fingers dance around the base of your spine before pulling you closely into her, and you grin into your kiss.

 

 _I sure hope nobody’s watching_ , you think, and then you dispel all thoughts of anyone other than Mitsuru Kirijo from your mind for the rest of the night.


End file.
